Samsung Portable SSD T3 (2TB) Review

Table of Contents

Introduction, Design & Features

Sometimes, when a company does really well in a specific market, it can wind up in stiff competition...with itself.

Samsung is certainly flying high as a maker of solid-state drives (SSDs). The Samsung SSD 950 Pro drive was the fastest consumer-focused M.2-based drive on the market when we wrote this in late February 2016. The company's Serial ATA-based drives, notably the SSD 850 Pro and SSD 850 EVO, are among the fastest and most affordable available (respectively) of their SATA kind. And the year-old external Portable SSD T1 still holds up well on the performance front in the face of recent competing drives from Lexar and SanDisk.

But Samsung isn’t resting on its solid-state success. The company recently announced a new low-cost SSD 750 Series drive to compete with the likes of OCZ’s Trion 150 and Crucial’s BX200 budget drives. And at CES 2016, the company announced the drive we’re looking at here, the Portable SSD T3, a more aggressive take on this emerging category of drives.

This second-generation external SSD performs better overall than its predecessor (and any competing externals we’ve tested to date), and moves to a slicker, sleeker, aluminum shell. Perhaps most impressively, Portable SSD T3 is available in capacities as high as 2TB for those who need fast and spacious external storage.

But if you need that much storage space, you’ll pay a hefty sum for it. The 2TB model we tested was listed on pre-order at Amazon and elsewhere for $850. Things get more affordable the further you step down the capacity stack, with the 1TB model T3 listed at $430, the 500GB version listed at $220, and the 250GB entry-level option showing up for $130. That said, the cost per gigabyte is about the same down the stack—a little above or below 45 cents per gig—until you get down to the 250GB model, which tops 50 cents per gig.

Apart from perhaps the 2TB model, those prices aren’t exactly astronomical for a tiny, fast, slickly designed drive. But as of this writing in late February 2016, the previous Portable SSD T1 model was much more affordable. For instance, the 1TB Portable SSD T1 sells for about $80 less than the same-capacity Portable SSD T3, and the 250GB T3’s $130 launch price was about $45 more than the current $85 asking price for the same-capacity Portable SSD T1.

Of course, these T3 prices will likely fall once the drive has been on the market for a few weeks or months. So you’ll want to check current prices if you’re reading this after February or March 2016. And, at some point, the Portable SSD T3 will replace the T1, so buying the old model won't be an option outside of secondary sales channels.

But until that happens (or until prices equalize), the Portable SSD T1 is the T3's own worst enemy. As much as we like the Portable SSD T3’s metal shell, future-looking USB Type-C port, and improved speeds, the older Portable SSD T1 is unquestionably the better buy for most shoppers.

Design

The previous-generation T1 drive was nice enough, with its textured black-plastic shell and slim oval shape. But there's no question that the Portable SSD T3 is an improvement in terms of build quality.

Most of the newer drive is covered in silver metal, which both looks and feels better than plastic. And Samsung has managed to ditch the mid-waist bulge of the T3, for a slimmer shell (now 0.37 inch thick) that's also easier to pocket, thanks to its flat, smooth sides.

Rather than opting for the somewhat bulky and short micro-USB 3.0 cable of the Portable SSD T1, Samsung has gone with a USB Type-C cable with the Portable SSD T3. The cable is a standard Type-A on the other end (the end you'll plug into your devices) and is about 16 inches long.

In most cases, the length of the cable means you won't have to leave the drive dangling from a front USB port if you're a desktop-PC user. And because the cable is removable, you can replace it with something longer (or shorter) if you need to, or if the cable becomes faulty in the future.

Software

The Portable SSD T3 doesn't ship with much in the way of software on the drive. All you get is a Windows and Mac T3 Security Enabler app that lets you password-protect the drive. AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption is also supported.

Look beyond what's on the drive, though, and you can find a Samsung Portable SSD app for the drive in the Android Google Play store, a free download. The specific support for Android isn't something we've seen much (or at all, really) for external storage drives.

The app doesn't do a whole lot, other than let you change the password or disable it, display the total and available storage space, and show the drive's serial number (which is also on the bottom edge of the physical drive itself). For actual file and folder handling, the app hands you over to whatever file-explorer app you have installed.

While the Android app isn't feature-packed, we're happy that Samsung offers up software for Android, rather than just the usual Windows and Mac selections that come with most external storage drives.